LAKEPORT &GT;&GT; A Kelseyville man says he has been battling mortgage companies and Bank of America to keep his family”s house.

According to Larry Anderson, 76, the bank has been using the Mortgage Electronic Recording System (MERS) to foreclose on his house.

The system is a national database of home mortgages that allows lenders to bypass county recorders to easily transfer mortgage rights. Through the system, which was created by the mortgage banking industry, MERS becomes the mortgagee of record for participating members.

The system is intended to improve efficiency. Before its implementation, lenders registered each mortgage sale with the local government, recorded in public records. MERS cut the recording system, saving time but blurring the trail of ownership each time a loan was sold from one party to another. There have been numerous complaints and lawsuits from homeowners, in California and around the country. “It affects a lot of seniors,” Anderson said. “What MERS is doing is proven fraud.”

Critics of MERS charge that the system allowed banks sell properties to several investors, to endorse subprime securities and more by using credit default trades. Through this method, banks essentially gambled that certain loans would end up in default. Meanwhile, through the transfer of such loans, they earned more. Yet homeowners found themselves facing the threat of foreclosure with no legitimate lender to contend with.

After Anderson”s father died in 1989, his mother bought a house in Kelseyville with his father”s estate.

“His wish was for the family buy a home for the benefit of the family,” Anderson said.

The house was deeded to Anderson”s sister Nancy, because an injury Larry suffered during his time serving in the U. S. Navy left him in poor health.

“Sadly my sister got cancer and suffered an aneurysm, which landed her in a nursing home,” Anderson said. “Then a salesman … sold her a reverse mortgage, which left me off.”

The reverse mortgage was signed in May 2006.

Anderson claims the bank was unreachable for two years.

The original mortgage ended up with Reverse Mortgage Solutions (RMS), according to Larry. Shortly after, he was threatened with foreclosure again.

After conducting three securitization audits on property, it was found that Seattle Mortgage Company was paid off in full in 2006 by Ginnie Mae, Larry said.

“Bank of America and RMS don”t have anything to do with loan,” he added.

The county can pursue an audit to determine if fraudulent recordings have occurred.

“The difficulty is that in California, recording title assignments is not mandatory as it is in some states. Here, it is permissive,” Lake County Counsel Anita Grant stated. “An audit wouldn”t be helpful for failing to record because they aren”t required to record. “It might be useful to uncover some other type of fraud,” she added.

Lawsuits by individual homeowners remain an option.

Anderson has filed five elder abuse cases, one of which regards his sister, and expects the Lake County District Attorney”s office to pursue the cases soon.